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Dado Question

05-15-2007, 11:39 PM

Here’s a question for the dado gurus among us:

When I stack three blades together do I put the cutter teeth straight across from each other or do I stagger them?

It appears to make a difference on the width of the cut. Logic tells me that they should be staggered for balance, but I think the width of the cut comes closer to what I want when they are lined up straight across.

Incidentally my dado stack is an el cheapo from HF and I notice that it too makes a slot with bat wings caused by the two outside cutters cutting a slightly deeper slot than the inside sweeps. I can’t see where this does any harm. It might do some good because it makes a slight depression for excess glue.

Comment

For what it's worth, my Freud dado set won't fit together unless the chippers are staggered because of the over-sized cutting edge (makes for a nice overlap). The instructions say to keep them 90 degrees apart.

When I stack three blades together do I put the cutter teeth straight across from each other or do I stagger them?

It appears to make a difference on the width of the cut. Logic tells me that they should be staggered for balance, but I think the width of the cut comes closer to what I want when they are lined up straight across.

Incidentally my dado stack is an el cheapo from HF and I notice that it too makes a slot with bat wings caused by the two outside cutters cutting a slightly deeper slot than the inside sweeps. I can’t see where this does any harm. It might do some good because it makes a slight depression for excess glue.

Blind Bill

Comment

Stagger the teeth. The teeth are always wider than the cutter is at the arbor, and even a cheap dado without carbide on the outside cutters will have half the teeth pitched in and half pitched out. If you put the teeth in line, the dado stack will not be tight at the arbor, where it counts, unless you bend the blades. This will also ruin the edges of the teeth, where they do most of their cutting.
As for balance, each blade or chipper should be balanced across the center, so the stack will be balanced. By staggering the teeth, you also get more continuous pressure against the arbor (or motor shaft) while cutting, instead of a "whump, whump whump" like you would get with a molding head.